Many of today's electronic devices include multiple applications that may be accessed by the user of the device. Applications comprise a program or piece of software designed and written to fulfill a particular purpose. Some applications include, but are not limited to, email applications, texting applications, calendar applications, navigation applications, camera applications, timeline applications, . . . , etc.
Many applications have a voice-input feature, where the user may speak into a microphone, and have their speech act as an input to the application. For example, a user who wishes to navigate to a particular address, may run a navigation application, and speak the address instead of inputting the address via, for example, a keyboard.
Push-to-talk (PTT) devices are commonly employed by public safety personnel, air traffic controllers, emergency workers, construction site workers and others who need to be in constant and readily available voice communication. PTT, also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of communicating using half-duplex communication lines. A PTT button may be pressed to switch a device from a voice reception mode to a transmit-mode. For example, when a channel/talkgroup is selected, one operator may depress the PTT button on her device and speak into the device's microphone. The speech is converted into an appropriate format and transmitted to one or more other devices over the channel/talkgroup, where the operators of those other devices hear the first operator speak through their device's speaker.
When communicating over a talkgroup/channel, each PTT radio typically communicates with one group of radios (talkgroup) at a time. Even though a radio may switch between talkgroups, the radio may still only be able to communicate with a single talkgroup at a time. For example, a firefighter may be affiliated with or using a firefighter talkgroup and a police officer may be affiliated with or using a police talkgroup. Talkgroups outside of those currently listened to by a radio will not be heard by other radios or consoles. Thus, a radio speaker will only output audio from a talkgroup associated with the radio, and the radio's transmission will only be heard by those communicating on a same talkgroup.
Instead of assigning, for example, a radio channel to one particular organization (group) at a time, users are instead assigned to a logical grouping, a “talkgroup”. When any user in that group wishes to converse with another user in the talkgroup, a vacant radio channel is found automatically by the system and the conversation takes place on that channel. Many unrelated conversations can occur on a channel, making use of the otherwise idle time between conversations. A control channel coordinates all the activity of the radios in the system. The control channel sends packets of data to enable one talkgroup to talk together, regardless of frequency.
Because PTT and talkgroups are so ubiquitous in the public-safety realm, it would be beneficial if a PTT button and a talkgroup selector could be used to control voice input into applications that reside on device. This would serve to decrease an amount of time it takes for information to be input into an application, which can greatly benefit the public-safety officer.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.